IBM to Mothball a Whole Bunch of Stuff with Power7
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Apropos of nothing last week, I was ruminating about the planning that AS/400, iSeries, and System i shops need to do as they prepare for the Power7 generation of servers running a patched i 6.1 or the new i 7.1 operating system. IBM has been slowly lifting the veil on the Power7 chips throughout the summer, but hasn't said much about the systems that will use them. READ MORE >

IBM, VMware Cooking Up vSphere 4.0 Support for i
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

The word on the street is that the software engineers at the Power Systems division at IBM and their counterparts at X64 hypervisor juggernaut VMware, are working to get the new ESX Server 4.0 hypervisor--and perhaps many of its vSphere 4.0 extensions--integrated with the i platform. But don't hold your breath. This will apparently take some time. READ MORE >

What Apple Did That IBM Must Emulate
by Martin Fincham

The IBM i server has an image problem, which is why going on a public relations offensive is the fundamental goal of our iManifest initiative. I am often asked to comment on IBM's decision to unify the System i (AS/400, iSeries) and System p (Unix) server lines--what we now know as Power Systems. My view is that the resulting engineering efficiencies and economies of scale must bode well for the future of the IBM i platform. READ MORE >

As I See It: After You're Gone (.com)
by Victor Rozek

My wife's grandmother was born while the Ottoman Empire was still in business--which is to say a long time ago. When she died, she left behind memorabilia from a life that spanned nearly a century. There were photos--boxes of them--some in albums, some loose, some marked, some not, some capturing moments with people known to the family, some showing the smiling faces of strangers. There were letters, diaries, newspaper clippings, mementos, knick-knacks, and memorabilia documenting the lives of four children. It was a mountain of minutia; the physical remnants of a long, full life. READ MORE >